In modern business environments, there are usually several things you can count on to be consistent. This application relates to two constants in particular. First, nearly everyone has access to e-mail, and second, at some point everyone will more than likely be asked to attend a meeting.
Ordinarily, if a meeting is to be scheduled, a meeting organizer will decide on a time and location as well as the people that should be invited. The meeting organizer can either phone each invited attendee with the details, walk around and personally inform each invited attendee, send an e-mail with the details of the event to each invited attendee, or send a meeting maker request to each invited attendee. Increasingly, “meeting makers” have become a popular method for communicating event or meeting information to invited attendees.
A meeting maker is a request that is delivered via the Internet or some other network, for invited attendees to obtain information regarding a meeting or event. From the meeting maker request that is being viewed, the invited attendees can view the meeting information, select whether they will attend the event, and have the event placed on their electronic calendar. An example of a meeting maker is Microsoft's® Outlook® appointment request functionality, and an example of an electronic calendar is Microsoft's® Outlook® calendar feature.
A meeting maker request may be typed directly into a meeting maker application, which will send out the request to invited attendees. Frequently, however, creating a meeting maker involves multiple steps. An e-mail suggesting or announcing a meeting may be sent to invited attendees. For example, a series of e-mails discussing a topic may be in progress when someone in the e-mail chain decides that calling a meeting would be a good idea. In this case, the invited attendees would need to open the meeting maker software and insert the meeting information into the meeting maker program manually. Most of the meeting information includes information that has already been entered by the user or other senders when composing the e-mail (or e-mail chain), but now the meeting information will have to be entered again into the meeting maker program. Upon receipt of the meeting maker request, the meeting maker may be accepted or declined by each person.